MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Hey ,man you know i love you but i gotta disagree.

I started my business with squat, i scrimped and saved, took no wages for a while and did what it took to build from small to less small, and so on and so on.

You dont need 450k to start a firm,but you DO need 450k to start a firm if you want new vehicles for it and to keep paying yourself top dollar while it gets off the ground, if you dont wanna cut back on the lifestyle you lead or sacrifice to achieve.

It sounds to me like these guys did want it all without the graft.
What an opportunity, no mortgage and 100k in the bank to pay for the house while you get your business off the ground. That is a dream. Instead they wanted that AND blew another 450k.

Any business man worth anything after the first 100k was blown would have pulled the plug.
Simple

Graycap23 said:

The American dream is to live in a 5,500 square foot home?

mdiver said:

You really just wanted to take the opportunity to brag about yourself, didn't you?

JustErin said:

Hey, i ain't got nothing to brag about, i live in a small home and drive a 5 year old car (italian mind ) i just know what you have to do to make it work. I am not rich by any stretch but in 4 years when the company hits 10 million UK it will have been worth it. I will be long gone by then and letting some other schmuck take the rap.
I worry more about paying the employees wages. The only time i ever borrowed cash for the business was to pay them.

mdiver said:

That's right, keep bragging.

Life gives you a beautiful home,mortgage paid, 100,000 clams to pay for taxes, utilites. Then you turn around invest it in a risky business considering the current housing market woes..not very smart. Why look a gift horse in the mouth? Enjoy what you get in life.

Graycap23 said:

The American dream is to live in a 5,500 square foot home?

It says that they took the second to start a business. The business didn't do so well.

I don't see that as greedy.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Hey ,man you know i love you but i gotta disagree.

I started my business with squat, i scrimped and saved, took no wages for a while and did what it took to build from small to less small, and so on and so on.

You dont need 450k to start a firm,but you DO need 450k to start a firm if you want new vehicles for it and to keep paying yourself top dollar while it gets off the ground, if you dont wanna cut back on the lifestyle you lead or sacrifice to achieve.

It sounds to me like these guys did want it all without the graft.
What an opportunity, no mortgage and 100k in the bank to pay for the house while you get your business off the ground. That is a dream. Instead they wanted that AND blew another 450k.

Any business man worth anything after the first 100k was blown would have pulled the plug.
Simple

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Well that's to bad then...I will take my comment back.

I never understood this show. Take people with no money, struggling and down in their luck and give them massive, ridiculous homes to live in.

Does anyone ever think about how much it costs have a house that huge? How much the utility bills are, etc.

I know these folks fucked up big time...but in general, I don't get why they have to make everything so over the top.

Just give them a modest house that suits their needs and that they can afford to maintain - not just for the next year but forever.

More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC's "Extreme Makeover" team demolish a family's decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.

Three years later, the reality TV show's most ambitious project at the time has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis.

After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it's set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that failed.

The house was built in January 2005, after Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and ABC's "Extreme Makeover" demolished their old home and its faulty septic system. Within six days, construction crews and hoards of volunteers had completed work on the largest home that the television program had yet built.

The finished product was a four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage that towered over ranch and split-level homes in their Clayton County neighborhood. The home's door opened into a lobby that featured four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a plush new office.

Materials and labor were donated for the home, which would have cost about $450,000 to build. Beazer Homes' employees and company partners also raised $250,000 in contributions for the family, including scholarships for the couple's three children and a home maintenance fund.

ABC said in a statement that it advises each family to consult a financial planner after they get their new home. "Ultimately, financial matters are personal, and we work to respect the privacy of the families," the network said.

Some of the volunteers who helped build the home were less than thrilled about the family's financial decisions.

"It's aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it," Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt, who helped vault a massive beam into place in the Harper's living room, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Here's an update.